THE EUCHARIST
‘The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’
The Jews expressed no desire to know how to obtain this promised blessing, but perplexed themselves with the inferior question—how the thing promised could be accomplished. ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’ In answer to this our Blessed Lord, Who never satisfied a profane curiosity, simply reiterated His previous assertion, only in stronger and more unequivocal terms.
I. What is required is clear—a participation of Christ—heavenly food, which is Christ Himself, as once crucified, Who has now been glorified. It is not here said that the one thing needful is only faith in Christ, for, although it is only by faith that we can receive Christ, yet faith is not the bread, but the hand by which we receive the Bread; faith in Christ crucified is the condition required, but the bread of life is the reward conferred upon that faith. Faith is the qualification; the thing to be sought for is the Body and Blood of Christ. At the time of the ‘institution’ our Lord’s natural body was visibly present before His disciples; they could not therefore have understood Him to mean that this was distributed to them, or that such would hereafter be the effect of their carrying out His orders. After His Ascension they understood more clearly the connection between His declaration, ‘It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing,’ and His words, ‘What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before?’ When He instituted this blessed sacrament, He anticipated the effects of His Ascension, and imparted Himself spiritually to His Apostles; and though sitting at the right hand of God, He is specially present in the Eucharist to convey Himself, through the consecrated emblems of His Body and Blood, spiritually but really, to the hearts of His faithful people. The Eucharist then is a sacrament, the means through which we receive a covenanted gift from God.
II. What we offer to God.—There are sacrifices, which Christians present as their own, the best they can give to God. God gives us a property in certain things; and what He has given He permits us to regard as our own, and to accept what we give of these as offerings. He needs nothing at the hands of His children, but He is pleased to receive back out of what He gives as tokens of love and gratitude on our part. Out of Christ, it were presumption to approach God with any such intent; but through Christ, we are permitted to bring our gifts; and in offering anything to God, we offer a sacrifice. Our sacrifices, in the Eucharist, have all of them a spiritual reference, and are—
(a) Almsdeeds; God hath declared that what we do to the poor and afflicted in His Name, He will regard as done unto Himself; therefore the giving of alms is a sacrifice. It is not the money which is the sacrifice; the money is only the outward and visible sign of the real offering, which is internal and spiritual, the benevolent sentiment within. And this must be a freewill offering; compulsory support of paupers, or money given grudgingly, cannot come under this head (Php_4:18; Hebrews 11:16; Acts 10:4).
(b) Prayer, praise, and thanksgivings are direct offerings to God. From the Book of the Revelation we learn that, through the intercession of Christ, the prayers of God’s saints ascend before Him as the smoke of incense (Revelation 5:8; Malachi 1:11; Hebrews 13:15).
(c) The dedication of a contrite heart, sanctified by grace, is another acceptable offering to God (Psalms 51:17).
(d) The sacrifice of the whole man, body, soul, and spirit (Romans 12:1).
All these sacrifices the faithful communicant offers when he takes part in the service of the Holy Eucharist. Thou hast sacrified Thyself for us, O Lord; Thou hast given us grace to make an offering to Thee—behold it, even all we have and all we are.
Dean Hook.
Illustration
‘Let us remember how impossible it is for any one to explain the end of this verse who denies the sacrificial character of Christ’s death. Once grant that Christ is only a great teacher and example, and that His death is only a great pattern of self-denial, and what sense or meaning can be got out of the end of this verse? “I will give My flesh for the life of the world!” I unhesitatingly say that the words are unintelligible nonsense if we receive the teaching of many modern divines about Christ’s death, and that nothing can make them intelligible and instructive but the doctrine of Christ’s vicarious death, and satisfaction on the Cross as our Substitute.’